Almost all — 95% — want screen of buyers widened to private and gun-show firearms sales.

January 30, 2013|By Colby Itkowitz, Call Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — As Washington wrangles over the historically contentious issue of how to limit gun violence, voters in Pennsylvania — a state with a long hunting culture and hundreds of thousands of gun owners — want stricter national gun control.

Nearly every Pennsylvanian — 95 percent — supports universal background checks on all gun buyers, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday. A recent Pew Research Center survey found 85 percent of Americans support background checks on private and gun-show firearms sales.

In a post-Sandy Hook world, where the horrors of a crime that killed 20 first-graders and six educators have all but forced politicians to do something about gun violence, expanding background checks is the most likely proposal to become law.

Although the issue remains contentious, as evidenced by the push-back it received from the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre during a Senate hearing on guns Wednesday, it's earned tenuous support from Republican congressmen from eastern Pennsylvania, including Lehigh Valley Rep. Charlie Dent and Bucks County Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick.

But Republicans, even from moderate districts outside Philadelphia, are unlikely to get behind the more highly charged gun control proposals like an assault weapons ban or ammunition limits.

Every Republican in the state's delegation earned an "A" grade from the NRA, the powerful pro-gun lobby.

Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, had a B+, but that score predates his recent support for bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. He changed his position after the Dec. 14 Newtown, Conn., school shootings.

A majority of Pennsylvanians, 60 percent, support a national assault weapons ban, and 59 percent back a ban on high-capacity magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds, the Quinnipiac survey showed.

A third of the poll's respondents are from Philadelphia and elsewhere in the state's southeast region, about a quarter from the western side of the state, 28 percent from central Pennsylvania and 12 percent from the northeast.

The Quinnipiac poll also found that nearly half the voters surveyed would be more likely to support their own member of Congress in the next election if that lawmaker supported an assault weapons ban. Twenty-eight percent said they'd be less likely, and just over a quarter said it would make no difference.

Villanova University politics professor Lara Brown said a universal background check — meaning checks on buyers everywhere guns are sold, whether through a dealer, privately or at a gun show — might let pro-gun lawmakers have it both ways.

"You're going to end up with a bill … more symbolic than substantive that will also allow all parties, even those who support the NRA, to say that they went along with reasonable changes but that they defended the fundamental right to use and own a gun," she predicted.

Russ Unangst, owner of Hillbilly Shootin' Irons in Palmerton, said criminals would ignore strict gun controls. He prefers guns be transferred through a licensed dealer like himself, not a private seller. But he said that has more to do with having the necessary paperwork for the firearm, not a need for background checks on more buyers.

The Obama White House has been adamant that Congress do something on gun control. More Pennsylvania voters — 47 percent to 38 percent — trust the president over the Republicans in Congress to "make the right decisions about gun laws," according to the Quinnipiac poll.